The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-08-27
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

oSi-aNOL- <NtN6 IL
One day last week 600 hooking
birds were shipped from Pointe Coupee
parish, Louisiana. to Chicago.
In two of the leading Paris hospitals
the death-rate from all sorts of amputa-
tons has decreased from fifty per cent.
in 1880 to an average of about fifteen
per cent.
DO kingbirds swallow worker bees,
or do they simply crush them in their
bills, extract the nectar, and then cast
the robbed victim away GieaningS in
Bee Culture.
BY careful experiments M. Bloch
has determined that it takes LIP of a
second longer to hear sound than to
see a sight, and 1.21 of second longer
to feel a touch than to see a sight.
"A Belgian naval surgeon who has
made a study of the comparative effects
of hot climates on the constitution of
Europeans, pronounces tie Congo re-
gion more healthy than Brazil or the
English and Dutch Indies.
1t is asserted that many thousand
tons of peanuts are imported into the
ports of France annually for the manu-
facture of oil, and the residue after the
oil is expressed, is used for adulterating
cocoa in the preparation for chocolate
CONNECTIONS.
Prof Tiersch, of Leipsic, has now
shown that if piece of negro's skin is
grated on white man, the piece of
transplanted skin gradually changes
its color till it is white, and conversely
if a piece of white skin is grated on a
negro.
From a letter in Nature it appears
that Professor S. P. Langley, the well
known American astronomer, thinks
that the sun, if seen from outside the
earth's atmosphere, would be of d
blush color, or, as he describes it,
lavender with perhaps a suggestion of
purple,
Prof. Neumayer, ofHamburg, urges
the necessity of Antarctic exploration,
laying special stress on its Importance
for geology and paleontology. He an
ticipates that it will show that the South
Pole was center of dispersion of ami
mails and,plants for the Southern Hemis-
phere, as the North Pole is believed to
have been for the Northern Hemisphere.
Public Opinion.
Chemical decomposition has been
produced by pressure in the expert
ments of two Belgian chemists. Under
a pressure of 5000 atmospheres, at
temperature of 104o :, pulverized ace
tate of copper and lime was slowly liq-
uefied, and on removal of the pressure
the surface of the instrument in con-
tact with the salt was found coated
with copper.-B0Ston Budget.
According to report from the In
ternal Revenue Office, there are in the
United States 81 oleomargarine factor
les, and 266 wholesale and 1857 retail
dealers IN that product who paid special
taxes in November, December, January
and February last. During the same
months, 1868, 740 pounds of oleomar-
garine were manufactured, and 152, 797
pounds were exported.
Max Won Pettenkoffer, q noted Ger
man physician, does not believe that
cholera is contagious, in the sense of
being communicated directly from per-
son to person. He thinks it belongs to
the malarial group of epidemics, the
germs of which find their way from the
soil into the air, and thence through
the lungs into the system. In his opin-
ion, good drainage and pure water
supply are the most efficient safe
guards against the outbreak of cholera.
N Y. Ledger
M. Grand Fury has propounded a
theory that coal was originally liquid
generated by the decomposition of in
ferior vegetation in an atmosphere
highly charged with carbonic acid. The
carbon of the jelly-like mass thus
formed, after passing through various
transformations into asphalt, petrole-
UNI, bitumen, ETC., finally assumed the
form of coal. The author cites warrior
facts connected with the occurrence OF
coal which, he thinks, are better ex-
planned on his theory than by the usual
one.-B0StOn Transcript.